Sydney Water has been working towards the reintroduction of infrastructure contributions for drinking water, wastewater and stormwater services to help recover the cost of providing infrastructure to new developments.

This follows recommendations set out by the NSW Productivity Commission’s Infrastructure Contributions Review which were adopted by the NSW Government.

Infrastructure contributions ensure customer bills remain affordable by seeking a fair contribution from developers towards the cost of new infrastructure.

IPART has registered our infrastructure contribution prices

Effective from 1 December 2023, the NSW Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal (IPART) has registered 14 wastewater infrastructure contribution prices and four drinking water prices to be levied by Sydney Water.

These water and wastewater infrastructure contributions will be gradually reintroduced from 1 July 2024. In 2024-25, prices will be capped at 25 per cent of the full price registered with IPART, rising to 50 per cent in 2025-26, with full contributions from 1 July 2026, in line with a transition plan approved by the NSW Government.

The final prices registered with IPART included a price reduction in two areas, and a revised approach that affects two other areas. The revisions reflect our commitment to ongoing consultation, and further detail is contained in the ‘What we heard’ report and/or our methodology document, both of which can be found on this page. The registered prices are equal to or below those exhibited during the 10 weeks to 7 July 2023.

How infrastructure charges are set

The contribution payable by each development is worked out using a method set by IPART.

IPART’s methodology generates a price payable by all development inside discrete Development Servicing Plan (DSP) areas. The price in a DSP recovers the cost of assets needed to serve development in that area, with an adjustment for the revenue to be received from new retail customers. IPART does not specify the number or size of DSPs, and we designed a principled approach considering stakeholder feedback.

All the DSPs registered with IPART can be found on this page. You can also use the following map to identify which DSP(s) apply to land in our area of operations and the water and wastewater infrastructure contribution prices from those DSPs.

Open the legend ()on the map and then select the financial year (or years) you want to see displayed. You can then zoom in to any location to see the specific combination of water and wastewater prices that apply, including a reference to the name of the DSP regions (eg, GreaterSydney. Wilton refers to the Greater Sydney Drinking Water DSP and the Wilton Wastewater DSP).

The map is for illustrative purposes only. The actual DSP combination for a specific site will be determined by Sydney Water during the process of applying for a Section 73 Compliance Certificate.

The prices shown in the map (and in the DSP documents) are before inflation, in dollars of 2022-23. The price will be adjusted each financial year based on the change in the Consumer Price Index (CPI) compared to March 2023.

You may notice from the map that some land does not fall within a DSP area, whether drinking water, wastewater or both. In part, this is because our drinking water network covers a larger geographic area than our wastewater systems. Other reasons for differences in the coverage of DSP areas could include:

• There is no prospect the land could ever be developed (eg, National Park or catchment areas);
• Sydney Water is not the service provider (eg, the wastewater system is owned and operated by a council or another entity);
• Sydney Water has no information to suggest development is likely to occur in the short- to medium-term.